Advisor

Date

Publisher

Language

Type

Metadata

Please cite this item using this persistent URL

Abstract

This thesis analyses twelve contemporary Turkish literary texts having the
focus on queer theory. These are the tetralogy of Ayşe Kulin’s including Gizli
Anların Yolcusu, Bora’nın Kitabı, Dönüş and Handan novels, Murathan Mungan’s
Son İstanbul, Cenk Hikâyeleri, Kaf Dağının Önü, Üç Aynalı Kırk Oda stories and
Hasan Ali Toptaş’s Sonsuzluğa Nokta, Bin Hüzünlü Haz, Gölgesizler and Uykuların
Doğusu novels. This study compares Ayşe Kulin and Murathan Mungan’s texts that
are shown under the title of “LGBTI literature” and Hasan Ali Toptaş novels which
have never been analysed with the focus of LGBTI and queer themes, and these texts
are being subjected to a closer look from queer theory perspective. It was aimed to
investigate the way of character creation and fiction in texts and also to investigate
effects of the qualities of literary works shown under LGBTI literature on the
construction of the bodies and performances of the characters of heteronormative and
dichotomous sex, sexual orientation, sexuality and desire dynamics.Queer theory brings new meanings to performances, bodies, species,
discourses and policies by being out of the normative field and violating norms.
Queer theory also strives to deconstruct the dichotomous, sharp and straight
boundaries of the norm and identity constructions. In this context, queer theory
enables to regard the fragility, transcendence, fluidity and movement of the
boundaries in the construction of identities. Thus, Mungan’s works differentiate from
Ayşe Kulin’s way of creating characters and fiction by deconstructing
heteronormativity and the dichotomous construction of gendered identities and
sexualities, while drawing a parallel path with Hasan Ali Toptaş’s novels. By this
way, through the queer potential in Mungan’s and Toptaş’s texts it is shown how the
fictional items, which have no straight boundaries, cannot easily be considered by
being gendered on the heteronormative ground.